The Sundrop

The Sundrop is Lorien’s newest writing project, begun in late September of 2025. It will most likely be at least a novella in length, possibly a full novel. Below is a synopsis of the story and its themes.

A grad student drifting aimlessly through his studies, Emory Olguin is plagued by an emptiness that only grows worse as he approaches the specter of starting a life and a career. One night, at a party on campus, he is kidnapped by a gaunt figure living in a patchwork house, who binds him to a thousand years of service to the fairies. Desperate to escape, to resume the shell of a life he’s just lost, Emory finds an unexpected ally in Bryony, a fairy woman with a grudge of her own, who offers her help in loosening the bond that traps him. When he discovers a potential shortcut to freedom, though—a magical item that Bryony calls the Sundrop—Emory must confront the deep cost of taking this shortcut, a cost that may be greater than he understands. At once a vivid and mysterious interpretation of fairy folklore and the wild landscape of the fairy otherworld, and a melancholy exploration of gender and the trans experience, The Sundrop is a fantastic fable of identity, transformation, and the terribly heavy weight of deciding just how we want to show up in the world.